He listened as his family chatted, smiling at Lars’s jokes or when Carina termed him and Mattias ‘the boys’ as if they were still children in primary school – småskola. Lars asked Nico to go to the rink at Jönköping at six to take the ice hockey under sixteens skills training.

Wondering at the flash of anger he caught in Mattias’s eyes, Nico groaned, but agreed. He kept hockey gear at Lars’s house and his dad knew that.

‘And I have four tickets for the HV71 home match on Monday,’ Lars sighed, referring to Jönköping’s Swedish Hockey League team. ‘I planned for you to come, Nico, with Mattias, Felicia and me.’

Mattias interrupted, ‘Now you’re in hospital, let Nico take his family.’

‘But—’ Nico protested but Mattias was grabbing his coat and muttering about how busy he was.

Later, Nico strolled back to the car park with Carina. ‘Do you know what’s bugging my little brother?’

Carina gave an elaborate shrug. ‘Ingen aning.’ No clue. She didn’t deny Mattias’s remoteness, though.

Nico sighed as he saw Carina back to her car and hugged her goodbye. ‘I’ll try and talk to him.’

The journey back to his dad’s place was slow. The snow lay six inches thick now and when he eventually swung into his dad’s driveway he was cautious of the snow that had accrued since he left.

The sound of laughter from behind the house drew him to the back garden where he found Josie, Maria and Hannah, bright-eyed and rosy from the cold.

‘Look, Dad!’ Josie squealed as soon as she saw him. ‘We’ve made snowmen to remind Farfar of us when we’ve gone.’

He moved closer, pausing to absorb the rugby tackle Maria sometimes bestowed as a hug. She shouted, ‘Look men, Mydad!’ The lying snow was scraped and trampled now and from the centre of the welter rose four snowmen – or snow persons – beneath the snowy pines. One tall; one a little smaller with what looked like a swollen chest; and two smaller still, one Josie-sized and one the height of Maria. He grinned, realising the snowy figures were, indeed, them, with pebble eyes and carrot noses. The one with the swollen chest must be Hannah and he could imagine Josie’s literal mind at work there.

‘Fantastic,’ he pronounced. ‘I’ll take photos and send them to Farfar.’

‘It was my idea!’ Josie boasted, bouncing gleefully. ‘Take our photo with them.’

He obliged, and they all crouched down for a selfie, ears and noses stinging in the cold. Then he said, ‘I’ve let Farfar persuade me to take under sixteens’ hockey skills training at six. Do you guys want to watch? Or stay here?’

‘Watch,’ said Hannah and Josie simultaneously, Josie adding, ‘Can we have supper out afterwards?’

‘Supper?’ repeated Maria expectantly.